The 1970s was a weird and wonderful era for home cooks: Much like the bellbottoms and leisure suits that dominated the decade's fashion, the culinary trends of the 70s were colorful, outlandish, and oftentimes, downright garish. The New York Times looked to a pair of Italian artists, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, to recreate dishes from the 1971 Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, and the resulting video may haunt your dreams.
Says the Times: "Its recipes weren’t written to appeal to the palate. Their instructions were designed to make the Teenage Fondue or Party Sandwich Loaf look a certain way: theatrical, performative, misleading." There's an oh-so-patriotic Jello mold, a terrifying frankenfurter and ziti concoction, a slightly freaky foray into the fondue craze, and, somewhat inexplicably, a woman wearing prawns on her fingers. Are 1970s-themed dinner parties poised for an ironic comeback? Perhaps — but maybe think twice about spray-painting your lobsters gold.
